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Fahrenbruary? What’s that all about then? #Fahrenbruary @FahrenheitPress @F13Noir

FAHRENBRUARY IS FINALLY HERE!

Break out the bunting, pop open the bubbly water, take off all of your clothes and run out into the street proclaiming to EVERYONE, wherever you may be in the world, that the month long celebration of the punk rock publishers Fahrenheit Press and Fahrenheit 13 is underway!

Now, there’s a slim chance that you may not know what the flipping blimey I am going on about here. You may have stumbled upon this post after turning the blogging equivalent of the wrong corner whilst blog surfing. You may have seen this on Twitter and, distracted by a cat chasing a mouse on a very small scooter, accidentally clicked on the link and…. piff paff poof… here you are. You may, of course, have clicked on the link on purpose and are genuinely intrigued as to what a Fahrenbruary actually is and what it will entail.

Well, whatever your reasons I warmly welcome you to my blog and I thank you for taking the time to read this and discover what Fahrenbury is and how it all came about 😊

Way back in the mists of time, well, December 2018, I had an idea. I was sitting having my usual coffee and sandwich in my usual cafe in my usual shopping mall, reading a book. I couldn’t tell you which book it was now, but I imagine it was a jolly good book with lovely pages and fantastic words upon those lovely pages. It may even have been a Fahrenheit Press book; I genuinely can’t recall.

It doesn’t matter.

But what does matter is that during a break from reading the aforementioned forgotten book, I had a wave in my brain; a ‘brain wave’ if you will. For some reason or other I started to think upon my ever growing TBR pile. Now, for those of you who are not conversant in Blog Speak, TBR means Towering Book Repository (although it is also often mistakenly called a To Be Read pile). My TBR is nothing like some I have seen, but it is big enough thank you very much. This isn’t a competition you know.

My physical TBR was big enough, but it was my Kindle eBook (the ‘e’ standing for ethereal because the books live in the ether; you see, entertaining and informative, this blog) TBR that was my biggest concern. Living as they do out of sight on my Kindle, they were also very much out of mind. There are books on there that I had utterly forgotten all about. Amongst those ‘forgotten’ books were many Fahrenheit Press titles. Now, I want to make something clear here; none of these books were forgotten because they are forgettable. No, it’s because I have a head like a leaky sieve with extra holes drilled into it, but Fahrenheit was a special case.

Going back even further into the mists of time, before December and way before breakfast time, Fahrenheit Press decided to take the bull by the horns and began a new initiative to stay alive. They began running a Patreon subscription service. If you don’t know what that is, or have never heard of Patreon, you can find out all about it at this hardly little linklet here. With Patreon, one pays a monthly fee to the creator of the thing you are interested in and in return you are rewarded depending on which ‘level’ of Patron you are. In my case I decided to dive in at the top end (lower ends are available), and this entitled me to every eBook that Fahrenheit and Fahrenheit 13 publish throughout the year plus one paperback per month. Some months that could be 5 eBooks, others it may only be one. The upshot of this was that I was amassing Fahrenheit books at a rate that I simply couldn’t keep up with.

Fair enough, I thought. They’re not going anywhere so I’ll get around to them. But that was before I became a blogger. Once I dipped my tootsies into the murky waters of the blogging sea I found that I was reading more and more books for blog tours and not so many books that I wanted to read from my TBR.

What was a beardy blogger to do? All of those quality titles by those fantastic authors languishing upon my eReader.

So, back to the cafe that fateful Saturday afternoon. My brain works in funny ways. Quite often it just sits there and goes “bleughhhhh, cake, bleughhhhhh, books, bleughhhhh, sleep… oooh, red kite… ” etc, but every now and then it says, “I say Mart, I have a wizard idea that just came to me out of the blue. What say we put it out there into the Twittersphere and see what happens? What a wheeze.”

So I did.

As you can see, from little acorns do mighty oaks grow 🌳

But why Fahrenheit in particular? Aren’t there plenty of other independent presses out there who are equally deserving of your attention? Well, yes of course there are, and who’s to say that they won’t get their chance to shine in the future, but Fahrenheit (along with Orenda Books), are publishers very close to my heart. Not only do they publish kick ass books from equally kick ass authors, they are amazing people behind the scenes too.

From Fahrenheit’s creator, head honcho, transatlantic Scotsman and punk rock publisher supreme Chris McVeigh, to the powerhouse that is Chris Black over at imprint Fahrenheit 13, “hard-boiled noir and experimental crime fiction“, where you’ll find some of the blackest, most twisted noir this side of David Lynch’s brain. Then their are the Fahrenheit Elves who work tirelessly to ship out your purchases in the most beautiful packaging you’ll find in publishing. There are no Jiffy bags and padded envelopes here; for the most part they are lovingly, and almost impenetrably wrapped in black tissue paper and adorned with unique and wonderful trinkets.

Wrapped with love and adorned with punk rock pins, skulls and little hearts (that are pretty much impossible to get off of your hands and will turn up in the most unexpected places. I’m still finding them in my bed after the one time I opened one of their parcels to be showered with little Halloween pumpkins, witches and stars 😂), the Fahrenheit Elves really know how to treat your wares.

My little idea ON A MUG AND POSTCARD! How fucking brilliant is that? I’ll tell you how fucking brilliant… it’s VERY fucking brilliant 🖤

Fahrenheit are constantly in touch with what their fans want and what their fans need.

Hold up… ‘Fans”?? Don’t you mean readers, you bearded ninny? Well no, no I don’t. Of course they are readers too, but they are also Fans of Fahrenheit, or Fahrenhistas as they are known.

That’s us, baby! And if you aren’t one yet, you sure as shit will be by the end of Fahrenbruary 😎

So, what’s in it for me then?

Bugger all. Seriously, nada. The only thing I get out of this is the pure, unadulterated satisfaction of spreading the love for something that I too absolutely love. What can be better than that, eh?

So, what can you expect from this month of love for Fahrenheit and Fahrenheit 13 then?

We have reviews, of course. That was my original intention after all. But it has grown since then. Grown into something far bigger and far more exciting.

You see, after I tweeted my little tweet way back up there other people started to comment on what a great idea it was. Fahrenheit loved it, as I hoped they would, but it was the response from their authors and other bloggers that has really made Fahrenbruary the beast, the Fahrenbeast, that it has become and have helped to make this thing into a reality. Without their encouragement and support this would not have become the thing that it has. It would still have happened, but it may have just been little old me all alone on my blog and Twitter.

And so it was that with my fellow blogger, and all round fucking superstar Matt Keyes (check out his brilliant blog https://itsanindiebookblog.com and show him some love), a plan developed. A plan to not only review books, but to truly celebrate the Punk Noir brilliance of Fahrenheit. Together we will be bringing you author Q&A’s, interviews, guest posts, spotlights and more. There will be giveaways (possibly every day), with a nice prize bundle at the end for some lucky sod 😆

As mentioned above, the Fahrenheit Elves have already started to make up merch. Real life merch! Check out this amazing little lot via their Instagram page for starters:

Postcards, mugs and, is that a t-shirt back there? All of this and more (not necessarily Fahrenbruary of course), will be available via their web store. Check out the links at the foot of this post.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. But even if there is nothing else, I can die a very happy beardy blogger.

If you like that mug up there then you can buy your very own from their website. They have an amazing merchandise page, but you can also buy their books directly from their site so all proceeds go to them. There is even a loyalty scheme where you can earn points on your purchases, so the more you pay the more you can save. As I said, Fahrenheit know how to treat their fans.

Fahrenbruary is a month long Fahrenheit love-fest, but above all else it will be FUN.

Eff-to-the-ewe-to-the-en….. FUNNNNNN!! *waves pom-poms ecstatically*

In fact, it will be Fahrenfun for the whole of February.

That is the most important thing here. Fahrenbruary is meant to be a fluid, dynamic and organic thing. If it all goes tits up then, pfft, so what? Even that would be in the spirit of Fahrenheit. 😆

But it isn’t just myself and Matt running the show here. If it wasn’t for the support of Gordon, aka G, over atGrab This Book; Danielle over at The Reading Closet; and Kellyover at From Belgium With Book Love, amongst many others, this month would not be the wonderful thing that it has become. So please check out their Twitter feeds and their blogs, and search for the hashtag, to see how they, and many others, plan to celebrate and embrace Fahrenheit Press and Fahrenheit 13 over the month ahead.

And then there are the authors. Without exception, every onethat Matt and I, and others, have contacted have wholeheartedly embraced the idea of Fahrenbruary and has contributed in some way or the other; be it as a Q&A, guest post or offering prizes to give away. Jo Perry, the author of the sublime Charlie and Rose series, has even created GIFs to celebrate the month ahead (one of which is featured at the top of this post). Their support has been truly touching and most wonderful indeed.

This isn’t just for bloggers either. Okay, if you’re reading this then you are most likely a blogger, but that means you can help us to spread the word. Let’s get the hashtag trending on your favourite social media sites, sod it, allover social media, whatever your poison. You don’t need to be a blogger to join in Fahrenbruary; you just need to read:

Read; review; post; hashtag; share everything; rejoice.

Easy McPeasy.

So, join us over the next 28 days and see what you can learn about Fahrenheit Press and Fahrenheit 13. You never know, you may just discover your new favourite author.

And if you can’t make it this year, well, there’s always 2020. Don’t forget: Fahrenbruary is for life 😉